GUARDIAN

Monday, April 21, 2008              

Just how okay is Mr. President?
By Joel Nwokeoma

FOR the umpteenth time, Nigeria was last week gripped with the confusing puzzle over the state of health of President Umaru Musa Yar' Adua. The palpable confusion over the President's health was widely reported by various national newspapers on Tuesday, April 15, a story that overshadowed, in significance, the 2008 budget that was finally signed by the President, after many months of roforofo fight between the National Assembly and the Executive. The most disturbing of the stories was that of The Punch with an alarming banner headline: "Yar'Adua ill, flown abroad"! The Guardian, on the other hand, was a bit mild, and deliberately downplayed it, with just a rider: 'President off to Germany for "medical review".

According to the latter's version, on its front page, "immediately after he signed the document, the President left for Germany to keep a date with his personal physician", for what Presidential Spokesperson, Segun Adeniyi called, a "medical review".

In the words of Adeniyi, the President's sickness is due to "an allergic reaction". But whatever intention The Guardian had in making it look as though the impromptu departure of Mr. President was prearranged was negated when it went ahead to report on the same front page that "Yar'Adua, who was earlier billed to travel to Dakar, Senegal for the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) heads of state meeting yesterday afternoon had to travel to Germany for health reasons." Meaning, the President had to cancel a state function to attend to a health emergency overseas.

The pervading confusion was exacerbated further by the President's spokesperson, who with a straight face, informed the nation, while addressing journalists after the budget signing ceremony, that "meanwhile, the President will leave for Wiesbaden, Germany... to see his personal physicians for a medical review of an indisposition believed to be due to an allergic reaction". Pray, what is "medical review" of an "indisposition"? A case of deliberate misinformation, you will say, because if we comprehend the word "meanwhile" as used in that context very well, it is taken that the President's health state, which we understood nothing about from Segun Adeniyi's linguistic jingoism, is just an aside. A "meanwhile" thing, if you ask me.

As if he read the mood of the nation correctly thereafter, a nation left both apprehensive and confused over their president's health, the selfsame President's spokesperson was reported the very next day by the media as clarifying that "Yar' Adua is okay" (see ThisDay, April 16). Quoting the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, the papers widely reported Adeniyi affirming that the President is okay and will be keeping his appointment at the hospital this afternoon having arrived here last night". This leaves one, unfortunately, with a thousand and one questions begging for answers.

One, what is not okay with the President's health which the nation he leads does still not know, but really deserves to, which took him, and takes, him to Germany, "to be keeping his appointment at the hospital? Two, if the President "will be keeping his appointment", as declared by Adeniyi, who then certified him "okay"? And, okay on what? Three, what is this "indisposition" and "allergic reaction" of Mr. President that cannot be treated in all the specialist and teaching hospitals in the country he happily presides over, except in Germany? Four, does the nation deserve to know the mental, emotional, psychic and physical state of health of its leaders? One often wonders why.

If Yar'Adua blazed the trail to declare his physical assets not long after his assumption of office, to the acclamation of all and sundry, is it not expected that his "health wealth", a different kind of asset, should be declared to the nation so we can take note of it also, and act accordingly? Or, what is wrong in knowing that Mr. President is suffering from headache, for instance, so as to pray for his recovery? Or better still, is it treasonable, if you remember, to know the state of health of a leader in a democracy instead of the subsisting confusion and speculation? It is a sad commentary that the state of health of Mr. President has been left to fester, like an irritating sore for so long.

You may recall that his health condition came to the public domain in March 2007 during the run-in to the last presidential elections in the country (In fact, it became a campaign issue of sorts). Yar'Adua, who then was the governor of Katsina State and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was reportedly rushed to Germany at the heat of the campaigns when he was expected at a Presidential Campaign rally of the PDP at the MKO Abiola Stadium, Abeokuta in Ogun State with the former President Olusegun Obasanjo treating the nation then with his now famous "Umoru, are you dead?" live telephone conversation via a loud speaker at the stadium with then PDP candidate, who was rumoured dead. But while reacting then to speculations about his health, Yar'Adua famously replied: "For those who want me dead, I have disappointed them. I am alive, strong and unstoppable".

On his sudden dash to Germany then, he further explained thus: "After visiting my doctor in Abuja, I took the view that I should not risk the future of Nigeria and therefore decided to come to Germany to have my long overdue medical attention. I have just had a session with the doctor who has declared me fit for the challenges ahead... (see ThisDay, March 8 2007). To most Nigerians, Mr. President might be "alive" but his regular visit to Germany for a "medical review" is an unwanted distraction that can "stop" whatever good intentions he has for the nation. Also, whether the recent event has proved his "fitness" is a matter of conjecture. Much as no one can be permitted to assume that Mr. President is a celestial being that cannot be sick, it does not speak well for the President's men to deceive the nation that all is okay with his health when events regularly point to the contrary.

Why serve the nation with tissues of equivocation and ambiguities about such an important matter? It sure beggars belief that those who profess certain virtues do not embody and personify such. This administration has consistently made a meat of being transparent, but what is, if one may ask, is so transparent about a state of affairs where the state of health of a President is smoldered in half truths? One question we all must ask the president's spokesperson is: Just how okay is your boss for the challenges of running a complex, complicated and malgoverned nation like ours? And, what is riskier than having someone with an uncertain health state run the show?